I messed the last two names up anyway

My Battle Plan for AS Levels

Imagine this: I’m the general of an army. (Stop laughing; I know it’s funny). My army is comprised of all of the strategies, tips, revision notes and motivation that I have. My enemy? A-Levels, that I’ll be fighting – I mean taking – in a year and a half.

Right now, I’m trying to deal with the baby version, the battle before the real one; it’s the one that’s so difficult but afterwards, an even worse foe comes along and goes “HA, you thought that was bad? Good luck!” And no, I’m not having a nervous breakdown just thinking about it. Where would you get that impression from?

Today, I had a panicky moment in terms of my work ethic and everything else. We had a double feature lecture, in which we were talked to about how to deal with revision, and how to get on top of things before our exams. Because of that, and because I realised that I haven’t been doing enough, I’ve compiled a little list of what I’m going to do. This time, I’ll stick to it.

1. Make better notes
I consider my notes to be rather bad, in that I write in full sentences and put so much detail in them that whenever I look back at it, I feel overwhelmed. This rigorous screaming of everything onto a page got me through GCSE, but because of the amount of work and the level of it, I need concise things to work from. Upon realising that all the notes I’ve made were in my usual style – writing everything and then feeling sick whenever I thought about it – I blinked, froze, and shouted: “NO, why did I do that?” Maybe my notes are alright, but they’re not alright for me.

2. Read over said notes and actually understand them
When I get home from school, I’m usually either too tired or too dispondent to read over what I wrote in lessons. That’s partly because I get exhausted when thinking of my notes, but also because I lack the drive to bother. That is bad, because if I want the information to be absorbed into my brain, I have to properly make the effort to learn it. Reading over them isn’t enough: I also have to fully understand the concepts, such as political policies of Bismarck, or why Anne Sexton used a specific technique in her poem.

3. Do productive work outside of lessons
We were asked in an assembly a few weeks ago: “Do you do proactive work or retroactive work?” The former being work that the teacher hasn’t set, and the latter just doing what’s asked of you by the teacher. I do the former, but not enough, and it irritates me. I need to really start doing extra work for french especially, and further reading for history and english, as well as everything else. It feels too much now, but if I take it a little at a time, I can manage; we’re told to do so much already, but doing more will enhance my understanding of the subjects I’m doing.

4. Actually talk to teachers
Since I started secondary school, I’ve had a few issues with asking for help: I think that I’m wasting their time, that if I tried harder I’d understand it, or that they’d think I was stupid. It’s resulted in a lot of tears on my end, and frustration on my teachers’ end, and it’s only recently that I’ve felt comfortable enough to voluntarily approach my teacher. All of them are lovely people and understand how hard A-Levels are, so if I talk to them more, I’ll feel more at ease and better about the work, rather than drowning in a sea of crappy worries. They’re not terrifying, though some I prefer to others, but still: they can help and I should remember that.

5. Don’t over-work
As soon as I wrote this down, I burst out laughing because I’m the queen of over-stressing and never giving myself time to relax. I’m still working on that, rather unsuccessfully, but here are some things that may make me more calm:
1. Seeing friends at weekends
2. Going out for walks
3. Increasing my independence – going on trains, cooking, walking around by myself – all of which are more difficult because I’m blind and never did those things in the past
4. Take BREAKS from revision and working
That will help me, because life isn’t all about constant schoolwork.

Hopefully, these will get me through AS Levels, and A-Levels too. If I can keep to these, I won’t be crying constantly from stress like at GCSE, and I’ll be more motivated. By doing all of this, I can feel more organised, get more motivated and do more work.

It’s simple, or it should be. From now onwards, I’ll be better about taking the initiative in studying.

I can do this. I hope that getting a handle on school will help me to cope with my terrible feelings right now, and the inadequacy I almost always feel. If I can prove to myself I’m good enough in this, I can prove to myself that I’m good enough in anything.

Post navigation

27 thoughts on “My Battle Plan for AS Levels”

These all sound like great ideas to help you move in the right direction. If it’s too difficult to take notes differently than you do now, (I know I have issues changing my note-taking even though I hate it) something I do is rewrite my notes and color coat them to make them super easy to read and nice to look at. I’ll just pop on some music and jam out as I write. This does take time though so I understand if that’s not practical for you!

Hey Elm x
This sounds like an excellent battle plan and if you slowly ease yourself into following it and adapting things along the way to suit you better, slowly you’ll see the difference! Let me know how everything goes xo

Good luck! Studying is often overwelming and stressful, especially arouns this time. But it`s definitely worth it. Not only on paper, but also the value of the knowledge it self. It sounds like you have a really good plan based on your specific needs, I`m sure you`ll do great! 🙂

Well…….. I’ve got some tips for you A-Levels. (I’m not British and A-Levels don’t exist in my country, but these tips are generalised for all types of tests.)
1. Study every subject topic-wise.
2. Remember every single time you got bad grades on a test. Now remember the mistakes you made on those tests. Don’t make those mistakes again.
3. Eat protein. Not for your muscles, for your brain. Consumption of protein has proved to increase memory retention.

Hey elm! Though I am not British even I have some really important and difficult exams coming up. I absolutely understand the kind of stress this brings but you can try a little meditation for controlling stress. It truly works(personal experience). Best of luck!

Good Luck!!!
I know you will do well. A levels may seem scary but trust me they are not. Best thing I can suggest is don’t go in there feeling scared and worrying about the future as that will only make your time worse. Trust me. Take time to gather your thoughts together and go into A-Levels with your head held high and a smile on your face. Stay cool, calm and collected and you will succeed at A-Levels. I made the mistake of being stressed and I basically ruined one of my A-Levels and walked out because I was stressed. So trust me just believe in yourself, you don’t need plans and just go out there and show the world who you are and what you can do. 😊😊

I’ll do my best! Thanks so much for the advice 🙂 it’s really helpful. I’m just trying to realise that I have the capability to do this, rather than just one thing at all. And I’m worried, but I’m dealing with those worries one day at a time XX

Good tips, especially the ‘actually read over the notes…’ so many times I’ve made beautiful notes, and then they’ve sat (untouched) whilst I think I know a topic…oops…
I’ve recently written a post on my page with my top revision tips, if you have a moment please check it out!
CrowdedVlogger xx

What type of post are you looking for?

What type of post are you looking for?

Who made your blog look so awesome?

Credit to Ilsa @ A Whisper of Ink for designing this awesome blog. If you would like her to design your blog then please contact her for more details. Designs are at no cost to you and are completely free.